Social media is my go to for finding inspiration for not just illustrations, but for everything. Scrolling through Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram etc. I always stumble across ‘DIY’ and ‘hack’ videos. I love watching them but I’ve never given any a try. DO THEY WORK!?

This morning I found one that I really wanted to try. Anything that replicates a complex art process, I’m down for trying. I saw this on twitter but found the original video on YouTube here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQUW5G26Z2w.

It was a DIY hack for, I what I assume, is screen printing. All you needed was tights, an embroidery hoop and Mod Podge.

I followed the instructions – firstly, cutting the tights and stretching them over the embroidery thread. Secondly you drew out your design, and then applied the Mod Podge to the area you don’t want the paint to print through. I chose to use a generic head shape from my illustrations of Pebble Heads so that I could then illustrate on top of the shape after. Once dried, I applied acrylic paint on a dried area of Mod Podge and then with a flat edged piece of cardboard, dragged with paint over at an angle, like you would with screen printing.

The process of drying was lengthy and the result was, blobby… I could see the potential but I just feel that because it is just paint on tights, it can’t be perfect! I had a few more attempts but the edge wasn’t as clean cut as the real deal.

It was fun to give it a go, as hacks like this, if good, could save a lot of money and enable complex print process techniques to happen at home. Maybe the paint was wrong, or the paper? Or maybe I had the wrong tights. But this hack is a no from me!